Here are the long awaited balance updates coming to Hearthstone AFTER the HCT Playoffs have been completed. We will be seeing nerfs to Naga Sea Witch, Spiteful Summoner, Dark Pact, Possessed Lackey, Call to Arms, and The Caverns Below (again).

Update: The release of these changes has been officialy set for May 22nd, 2018:

Update: These balance changes are currently scheduled to go live on May 22 PDT. – Source

Official Blizzard Post

In an update that will arrive some time after the HCT Playoffs are complete, we will be making balance changes to the following cards:

Naga Sea Witch – Will cost 8 mana. (Up from 5)

In update 9.1, we introduced a rule change to increase the consistency of Hearthstone game mechanics. The change affected precisely when Naga Sea Witch’s cost change was applied to cards. This allowed it to be combined with the cost reduction effects on giants, and as a result, it became fairly easy to reduce their mana cost to 0.

We think Hearthstone is better all around when interactions are consistent, and we like the fact that a Naga Sea Witch giants deck archetype exists. That said, we also understand that, with its current functionality, this deck can generate early board states that are unreasonable for most classes to deal with. By increasing the cost of Naga Sea Witch to 8 mana, the deck’s concept remains intact, but the combo is delayed until later in a match when more decks are likely to have the tools to handle the arrival of so many giants.

Spiteful Summoner – Will cost 7 mana. (Up from 6)

After set rotation arrived with the Year of the Raven, Spiteful Summoner became more powerful and consistent when used in decks containing 10 mana cost spells. This is because the pool of 10 mana cost minions in Standard is smaller, so players could more reliably count on getting a powerful minion from Spiteful Summoner’s effect. Even considering the deckbuilding sacrifices that an effective Spiteful Summoner deck requires, we think that increasing the card’s mana cost to 7 is more in line with the powerful outcomes that are possible when it’s used alongside cards like Ultimate Infestation.

Dark Pact – Will restore 4 Health. (Down from 8)

There are two aspects of Dark Pact that make it powerful. At a cost of 1 mana, it’s easily used alongside cards like Carnivorous Cube, Possessed Lackey, and Spiritsinger Umbra for big combo turns. It also gives Warlocks enough healing potential so that aggressively using Lifetap and playing cards like Kobold Librarian and Hellfire feel less consequential. We left Dark Pact’s cost intact so it can still be used as part of interesting combos, but lessened the healing it provides so Warlocks will need to more carefully consider how much damage they take over the course of a match.

Possessed Lackey – Will cost 6 mana. (Up from 5)

Some of the card combos involving Possessed Lackey present situations that are too difficult to deal with in the early-to-mid stages of the game. Increasing its mana cost to 6 delays some of those powerful card combos to turns that are easier for opposing decks to overcome.

Call to Arms – Will cost 5 mana. (Up from 4)

Currently, there are three popular Paladin decks: Even Paladin, Murloc Paladin, and Odd Paladin. Among the three decks, Even Paladin and Murloc Paladin have consistently been the most powerful two archetypes over the first few weeks since the release of The Witchwood. Call to Arms moving to 5 mana restricts it from being used in Even decks and reduces its power somewhat when used in Murloc and other Paladin decks.

We expect that players will experiment with Call to Arms at 5 mana in Odd Paladin decks, but we don’t expect this card to have much of an impact. This is because Odd Paladin can’t access 2 mana minions (meaning Call to Arms could only ever summon three 1 mana minions if played in that deck).

Note: As a result of this change, we are adjusting the “Greymane’s Alliance” deck recipe. It will now have two copies of Saronite Chain Gang in place of Call to Arms.

The Caverns Below – The quest reward, Crystal Core, will read: For the rest of the game, your minions are 4/4. (Down from 5/5)

The Quest Rogue deck uses a strategy that’s strong against slow, control-heavy and fatigue decks, but struggles against most other deck archetypes. There’s a fine line between being powerful against very slow decks and being powerful versus virtually all non-aggressive strategies. By changing the quest reward to make the resulting minions 4/4 instead of 5/5, Quest Rogue should still be a reasonable option versus slow, extreme late-game decks, but offer a less polarized matchup with more moderate control decks.

99 Comments

Johnny Bravo

May 21, 2018 at 10:43 am

Only thing that affects my pally build is the CTA nerf, which although I’m not fond of it being nerfed I’m ok with it. As for the rogue nerf Jesus Christ that’s a big rip, the spiteful means I don’t have to immediately use equality or Tarim just to take down a just recently summoned tyrantus or death wing, so no complaints there. Cubelock nerfs are always needed, as it can be really annoying to go against that meta and i need the dust eitherways. Now i just need to go to my collection to substitute as four drops, maybe glass knight and corpse taker could work

Not horrible actually but the CTA was bearable imo. I mean it’s a meta, you kind of have to expect that it’s gonna happen. Actually didn’t lose to Paladin THAT often. For the warlock I’m kind of glad that it still keeps the archetype alive but makes it a bit harder to pilot. Also crafted golden Skull and DK, so even though I’d get the dust refund I’m still glad I have playable cards instead… However, what bothers me slightly is that the mana change is not a simple mana change. It also disables a lot of the abilities what you can realistically do on T5 as WL. Letting the opponent build a board in that phase seems kind of bad and what else is there to play? Sure, you could defile + hellfire but that would just be stupid and a waste of resources on top. But getting out a Doomguard or a Voidlord only to face an army of minions that can actually do quite alright value trades at that cost seems like it’s gonna have a way deeper impact on the gameplay than what it first appears like. Then again, it was just too easy and what else could they do. I don’t disagree with the changes. I am just going to miss the difference between odd and even pala being the CTA as that was just great in terms of switching the decks every once in a while. But yeah, again, also warranted. Just sad to see so many of the cards I really enjoyed gone, as always. Didn’t even make me that mad to lose against them, too, tbh.

The rogue quest, though? I disagree. I didn’t think it’s such a big problem. Didn’t face that many, might be EU servers, who knows. But when I did it was always super close and sometimes I could also spot my own mistake in trading or whatever that made me lose. Didn’t feel OP to me and 54-56% WR is not really outrageous as well. But it might be me.

PS: The Naga got DESTROYED but I don’t even own it so can’t say much else… Sorry for those who enjoyed playing it, I guess.

Ah yeah, I forgot to add one thing. I personally HATE the spiteful decks. That card is just like Patches, with the exception that instead of being predictable, it’s either a dead card and you have 2 unusable 10 mana spells in your hand clogging up everything or it’s a totally mindblowing board swing that can end a game then and there. #neverlucky myself with it, obviously.

On the receiving end, I see the problem a bit differently. The other day I played against someone who played 2 in T6 & 7 and got Tyrantus and Deathwing. My main problem with the card is, for that reason, not the cost in itself; if I see that happening on T7 & 8 is not gonna change that much. What really bugs me is that the current standard set does not have enough filler 8 and 10 mana drops. It only has a few; I don’t know it from the top of my head and can’t look it up rn but I believe that the chance is actually 1 in 5 or 1 in 6 to get Tyrantus.

So what I think would help is making it spawn either a NEUTRAL card that costs as much as the spell. Deathwing is still very much possible (or even more so) but it can be targeted by so many spells. You can sheep it, execute it, whatever. There’s a remedy there. So you have an even bigger chance of getting that sweet 12/12 out but at least the other player has cards to deal with it. When playing against a successful spiteful combo it was always Tyrantus that made me lose. I mean, there’s a reason that thing costs 10 Mana – you shouldn’t be able to do much else on that turn after all. 6 mana to 7 mana still allows for 2 kinds of oozes being played for example. Or for a frost nova… Well, let’s just hope the next meta will bring back big common drops. That will also do its part to clean up with that luck combo archetype.

That brings me to my second suggestion: Toki Time Tinker it. Make it summon a minion across ALL sets with that cost attached. That would actually be quite cool, it can create more opportunities, varies games a lot more and they already programmed the needed spell effect for it (or at least 90% of it). Would bring about way more satisfaction when you hit a sweet minion and would also challenge the player more to improvise well with what they’re given.

Well I’ve won and lost to cubelock millions of times – I don’t even mind the deck, I like to play it myself and I know when I lost so I concede and then I’m also not mad.
I think what bothers me about these cards having been hit with the nerf hammer, one day later, is the fact that I also loved playing Rinlock for a change and that archetype was on the rise either way. And there, lackey was far more balanced as you do not have access to Doomguards and need a cover behind which you get to play your seals. Now having that happen one turn later is the turn you’d usually play Rin with coin or something along those lines… And even if you don’t you could at least heal and search for the key cards. With only 4 heal, that archetype will be way harder to play, not to mention that lackey has often been drawn too late in the game as is. I mean, your only demons are the 2 Voidlords and I guarantee you that you will have drawn at least one by T7. So from my perspective, all you could do is baleful banker them if they survive at all (which also requires THAT card in hand and now will happen one turn later on top).

But I digress, it’s just something that occured to me. In general, I think you’re right about Cube WL, that’s why I said that before.

And I honestly truly do not believe for a single second that it had to be nerfed due to power levels alone. You could beat Cubelock with good decks to counter it, hell I played a game against one yesterday where I ended it on turn 4 already due to the tapping.
The problem really is that the Witchwood just flat out sucks. There’s a few nice cards in there, of course, but overall it just looks like there’s way less synergy between cards than there used to be, way more memes and overall more trash and filler material. Okay, sweet, it sells more packs. But only to get to the few really cool cards and then it’s hard not to be salty afterwards that you’re sitting on a pile of cards that you will never ever play. And THAT is the real reason Cubelock had to go. It just did not die naturally because the Witchwood barely had any impact on the meta. Look over this site; there’s tons of decks where people comment “amazing deck but 0 ww cards? really?”. And to some degree, they’re right, but how’s that the players’ fault. They do what works and that’s the point of the game. It’s B’s fault for not releasing cards that make people build decks around them without keeping an old archetype alive due to the lack of enough meaningful additions resulting in a new archetype.

Just imagine they had given Infliction warlock, a cool concept, the love it actually deserves… do you really think they would have needed to kill Cubelock? I don’t. People like trying new things. But it’s a bad idea to give someone something that has less value but is new when the whole game is about value trades… hence infliction WL is already dead before it even lived.

All my hopes are on the next expansion, if that sucks again then we’re really going to enter a bad phase of Hearthstone where RNG will take over way more as the cohesive archetypes slowly fade away. Maybe that’s the plan ultimately to avoid having the ladder situation we currently have but it will also make the game terribly infuriating.

Personally I find myself agreeing to most nerfs with the exception of Possessed Lackey. I think making Lackey a six-mana minion puts Cubelock’s bread and butter strategy way too late in the game for it to make a significant change.
What bothers me is the “need” for these nerfs in the first place. This meta was, in my view, balanced and enjoyable. Yet the community still complaint and demanded changes. The only real problems with this meta for me were Quest Rogue and a Tyrantus generated by Spiteful Summoner.
I’ll admit, the fact I think this meta was balanced doesn’t mean it actually was. But I can’t do anything other than base my words on my own view of things, so feel free to disagree and challenge my perspective. But the way I see things, this meta was filled with powerful decks that definitely could do unfair plays. But every single meta deck was like that. What’s more, every meta deck was beatable. We didn’t have a Pirate Warrior or a true Face Hunter or an Aggro Shaman in this meta. The Hearthstone community needs to stop tossing the “busted, mindless deck” label around all the time or these “nerfs” will start ruining deck that shouldn’t be targets in the first place.

“I like all of the nerfs except the warlock ones!”
Someone obviously plays Warlock…

Nerfing cards doesn’t always mean that are busted beyond belief, it just means the card is oppressive to the meta. You can determine this by looking at the win rate of a deck, especially in comparison to when a certain card is played. Warlocks that land a turn 5 Lackey have an astronomical win rate. Same goes for a turn 4 Call to Arms from paladin. The cards just generates too much value when played on curve when compared to all other standard cards.

Again the issue isn’t that any of these cards are massively overpowered at any point in the game, the issue is that they have too much power too early in the game. Moving them up 1 mana gives more people more time to find better answers.

To be fair, I’m okay with Dark Pact. It’s the Lackey nerf I find extreme. So “except the warlock ones” more like pushes a false narrative.
And to disproove the “someone obviously plays Warlock” and “found the Cubelock player” comments, I actually swap between Miracle Rogue, Quest Hunter and Lady in White Priest in this meta (I was played Big Spell Mage in the previous one). These views weren’t biased, I truely believe the community can’t be sattisfied and that most complaints come from people that didn’t spend time to study how to beat those “oppressive” cards.

But in regards to what Clayassault said, I admit you have a point. I felt that not all these cards needed to be adressed. Spiteful Summoner in particular, in my perspective, only needed to be adressed in the form of Tyrantus (I even suggested they make his ability a Battlecry so that he’s a target for removal).
I feel these nerfs, for the most part, were uneccesary. They’re good nerfs though, so I can’t complain. I guess I’m just a bit more conservative towards nerfs.

I got wrong:
Tarim: not nerfed, I predicted nerf to 8 mana
Pact: they nerfed the life gain, I predicted nerf to 3 mana
Quest Rogue: they nerfed it, I predicted untouched
Skull: not nerfed, I predicted nerf to 6 mana

Cubelock will make place for Control Lock as the number one deck, that is fine…
Paladin oh well, retard murlocs everywhere now… the nerf to 5 will only make sure they are played more…
Spitefull summoner, not really a nerf, play it a turn later….
Crystal core, pff, 4/4 means not much only that flamestrike can clear it now.. it should have been 3/3

Naga Sea Witch, at turn 8 is acceptable however i still think the gimmick is too good,

I’m actually really happy with the Warlock nerfs since they didn’t kill the cubelock deck. Reduce the healing on dark pack is a really good one cause now warlocks have to be really careful with tapping. They just can’t draw crazily like before. It actually nerfed the hero hero power a bit as well

The raven is the year of the rogué, but a do like see more tempo and control decks in the ladder, not only tempo rogué or tempo mage, maybe a control paladín, ben b,. Love that deck :'(
Control druid Will be fun, or pick poket rogué, more baku or genn, I like the idea of a minion mage with genn or a elemental shaman whith alkir and baku

T4: Paladin plays Call to Arms – there’s not much AoE available to their opponent at that point and the Paladin wins.

T5: Paladin plays Call to Arms and you’re starting to get to a point where there’s a lot more AoE available – 6 mana gets you Blizzard, Fan of Knives x2, Shield Block > Reckless Flurry (or maybe Deadly Arsenal) or Starfall (5 mana)… Shaman (if anyone played it) could have double Lightning Storm or Volcano.

This refers to a pre-made deck recipe for an Even Paladin. With Call to Arms becoming 5 mana, the deck would no longer pass the “only even cost cards” check. So, it’s being replaced in the deck recipe with Saronite Chain Gang, which costs 4 (i.e., it’s an even cost card).

I like playing Rogue. It was the first class I leveled up, the first one I got a gold hero on. Tempo, Miracle, Kingsbane, whatever, I’ve enjoyed it. Except Quest Rogue. I absolutely hate the play style required for it to function, and to be honest, I don’t think this nerf does enough. Quest Rogue’s popularity may diminish briefly, but as the pool of cheap cards increases with the release of the two expansions before the next rotation, opportunities for this obnoxious, non-interactive deck to return will increase, too.

The real “nerf” needed for this deck is not a change to the card or the quest reward. It’s the addition of tools like Dirty Rat that are capable of disrupting the play style that the quest pushes players toward. (And in general, I’d like to see more tech cards that can be used to go after combos.)

Agreed. Nerf Crystal to 4/4 is not enough, with Sonia, Quest Rogue can generate enough resources in hand, and fill the board again after 4/4 been cleared, the best and probably the only way to anti Quest Rogue is still the same like before, to bring down Quest Rogue’s HP the more the better before Quest Rogue complete the Quest.

To be safe, I think Quest Rogue deserve further nerf, either Crystal Below Cost +1 or nerf Crystal can generate only 3/3. Or Quest Rogue will still be standout as a Time Bomb in future expatiation.

Rip even paladin (for now),say hello….im not sure,probably to our mlrglrlll overlords again,as for odd paladin, i dont see a CTA that useful,but maybe…is like draw 3 and play 3 1 mana minions,maybe yes,maybe not.
Good warlock nerfs, dealing with 3/9 taunt which generate another wall at turn 5 was just absurd.
Spiteful is still playable,8 mana would be horrible overkill,as for quest rogue, i think deck is pretty much done,but we shall see.

Yeah,but there is 1 copy of skull in the deck,also demon must be in hand + opponent can destroy skull,there is chance for counter this. There was no chances for this in T5 with pact,lackey + coin. Tbh…for me at least it changes a lot.

Just say it: you have nightmares with Quest Rogue and want it to be deleted. 😉 I personally believe they should come back to the Quest mechanics at some point, and this time give them all a reward aimed at Control. It’s a shame that all quests except Warrior, Druid and Rogue are not viable, especially with such a cool mechanic. Hunter and Shaman quests are aimed at aggro, which is counter-intuitive when you have to give up Turn 1. Warlock is just laughably bad with a mechanic that is irritating to play. Paladin’s reward is underwhelming. Mage is too RNG dependant and without Exodia or Molten Giants it’s too inconsistent. Priest makes games last 50 turns with no win condition. I’ve opened Warlock and Rogue Quest and I’m glad I’m getting dust back for Rogue at least. Didn’t have Sonia so I couldn’t play the Rogue Quest competitively anyway.

Here me out, im not raging about this card in paticular, but anytime a rogue deck sees tier one play it is nerfed. mircale, oil, quest rogue, tempo rogue and now tempo rogue. i understand the deck wasnt not fun to play against, but how about for rogue players you give us something to work with? i mean odd baku is okay, its just when other classes dominate they are give an expansion to run. i feel we need to get rid of the classic set so i can play a rogue deck thats not the same deck over 4 expansions.

The Caverns Below has been really good to me. Last summer, I opened it and had a lot of fun playing it until the nerf. Got my free 1600 dust and was able to make the Lich King when KFT rolled around. A few weeks ago, I happened to open Caverns Below again and have been playing it some more! Come the end of the month, this single card will have given me 3200 dust.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with these nerfs. Call to Arms is still an especially strong card, just use it in a regular paladin deck or murloc paladin deck. Calling 3 minions that range from 1 mana to 2 mana is still exceedingly strong, especially when they are strong stand alone minions in the first place. Five mana is a consistent cost that should have been there in the first place. It will still be utilized. Spiteful summoner at 7 is a fair card now, too, well above an average 7 mana card in basic stats and ability.

Lackey is another great nerf along with dark pact. Dark pact still has a great usage with some upside in 4 health, and lackey going to 6 still allow for a strong effect, just at a less critical juncture in the game. That being said, warlock still has a lot of anti aggro tools for the deck to still be viable. Just not as unfair as previous versions.

All great changes and fair. I’m looking forward to finally piloting zoo again and other board centric minion decks which actually requires interaction.

They meant Cubelock, not the card. Personally I think it’s just voidlord that’s outright broken but hey, everyone else seems to like noninteractive taunt walls.

Remieh

May 15, 2018 at 12:25 pm

Happy to see that for once they actually made decent and fair nerfs while not completely destroying the cards.
Tarim should at least have gotten the nerf to be a 3/6 and 7 mana but OK. Hopefully CtA nerf is enough to bring it down on level, which I think it will.

Yeah but its more of a balance. I dont see why you would dust any of these cards. Apart from call to arms which is now terrible… since you have to play it in a baku deck rather then a genn deck. You would only be recruiting 1 drops which is pretty terrible in my opinion for 5 mana 3 1 drops? nah. So I see your reason for dusting that but why would you dust anything else? I see everyone complaining about cubelock is weak now… Its definitively not you can still terrorise ladder just as before… You mainly use dark pact to activate cubes. The nerfs to cubelock aren’t gonna change anything in my opinion…

CtA will probably still be good in Murloc, though the 5 spot will be a little crowded. Maybe Secret Paladin will end up being the best Pally archetype now; it doesn’t run any 5 drops outside of Liam right now, so who knows. I think CtA is still a good card, but it will only be good in non-Genn, non-Baku Paladin decks.

The drop from 5 damage to 4 will most definitely hurt it quite a bit, using just 6 charge minions won’t be enough anymore. You may want to consider Baku Rogue instead, yes. That being said, I understand a class preference, but you are seriously restricting both your potential and enjoyment in the game if you are solely playing Rogue.

I never spent money on this game so I can’t play with all classes as I wouldn’t have all cards. I play usually with Tempo and miracle and right now I am in 8 rank. I like playing with other classes too and I do so in the arena.

A big part of Tarim’s power in Even Paladin was it’s ability to follow up on a Call to Arms board. Or a reload from Drygulch. With CtA no longer available, it’s likely Even Paladin will lose favor with a lot of two drops including Knife Juggler and Drygulch and it’s offensive power with Tarim will decrease significantly. The only thing I wanted to see in regards to Tarim was an occurrence decrease for him from Stonehill since he’s an absolute menace when found in Odd Paladin.

Completely agree on your Stonehill Defender argument. I’ve already commented the same thing below. I also think that the nerfs care decently about Even Paladin, but Paladin as a class is going nowhere, especially curve-wise.

Every time you make change for warlock cards and never you bring new cards for him. You just destroying people warlock deck all the time !!! 🤮🤮🤮 better thing and try play with warlock we see which position you can get with yours changes 😢

The nerfs are fair, I’m sorry for the Even paladin, but maybe with this nerfs Uther will find some new way to play, I’m happy for the lock. I’m a lock player but hate so much the cubes, and maybe good cards like enforcer and dreadlord will find some space in the meta. I totally don’t understand the nerf to the spiteful summoner. Happy for Tarim, i love it 😀

About the only Warlock deck I’ve been playing recently has been a Zoolock deck with Glinda – and that’s totally unaffected by either of the Warlock nerfs.

Control Warlock might need a little rejig but, to be honest, in most games at least one of the Lackeys was a dead card anyway. Could probably sub them for a couple of Applebaums and be OK.

So it’ll only really affect Cubelock… and it might even open up a slot in just about every other deck as they won’t need to run 2x Spellbreaker (or some other silence/polymorph/hex) type card. Sounds good to me!

As much as I agree that Tarim should get some kind of nerf, why would Rin get nerfed? It’s a pretty niche card which is good only in a few matchups. Plus it has a really interesting counterplay. It’s one of the last cards I’d nerf.

I thought the same thing then i thought… it s a single slot card that give you a very strong late game win condition. No need for combo, no need to build your deck around, a single slot and you wreck all slow control deck.
That s why.

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